The mother of Emilio Hoffman, the 14-year-old freshman fatally shot last week at Reynolds High School, spoke to a reporter for the first time Wednesday about how her family is coping.

Jennifer Hoffman told KATU TV reporter Hillary Lake that her family is deeply shaken by the events of June 10, when her son stepped into a school locker room and encountered shooter Jared Padgett.

“Nobody can tell me there’s a reason,” Jennifer Hoffman said in a broadcast that aired at 4 p.m. “I’ve always been the person who everything happens for a reason.”

Hoffman cried as she spoke. Vases of flowers could be seen in the background.

“I don’t know how we’re ever going to be the same,” Hoffman said. "I don’t know how we’re going to do that. We have to.”

Hoffman said she was willing to talk publicly about her son because she wanted people to know who he was. He was smart, handsome and loved by friends, she said.

He loved soccer. “Emilio could play any position on the field,” Hoffman said. “His passion was defense.”

A memorial service for her son will be held at the Good Shepherd Community Church, 28986 S.E. Haley Road in Boring, at 4 p.m. Sunday. The service will be open to the public.

Jared Padgett, a 15-year-old Reynolds freshman, killed himself after police arrived. It appears Padgett shot Emilio Hoffman when Hoffman walked in on him in the boys locker room as Padgett was putting on a vest filled with ammunition and taking out an AR-15 rifle from a guitar case he had carried to school on the bus.

Jennifer Hoffman told KATU that she wants to talk to Padgett's parents eventually. The Padgetts have publicly apologized for what their son did.

“I don’t feel anger towards them,” Hoffman said, according to a KATU story on the station's website. “I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for them because I honestly feel like they didn’t know their son.”